


It Starts With a Storm

by xrosepetalsx



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-23
Updated: 2014-05-23
Packaged: 2018-01-26 05:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1676255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xrosepetalsx/pseuds/xrosepetalsx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It starts during a storm.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>  <i>Not a literal one, but a storm none-the-less. A storm that very nearly destroys the Earth, and barring that, the greater New York area, thanks to a combination of Loki, and the idiots in charge of SHIELD.</i></p><p>Or, how Steve fell in love with Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Starts With a Storm

**Author's Note:**

> I am so in love with Stony right now, that when I saw these word prompts, I decided it was made for them, and tried my hand. Kind of pretends Tony and Pepper were never an item, and lacks a little in terms of actual speech.

**Storm**

It starts during a storm.

Not a literal one, but a storm none-the-less. A storm that very nearly destroys the Earth, and barring that, the greater New York area, thanks to a combination of Loki, and the idiots in charge of SHIELD.

Thankfully, the Avengers are there to stop it, but it was a close thing, and they very nearly lose Iron Man in the process.

So it starts during a storm, and in the eye of the storm Steve realizes Tony’s more than he’d initially appeared to be. When the storm is over, Steve figures out Tony is _nothing_ like Steve had thought.

When the face plate came off at the end, Steve’s heart clenched at the thought of another fallen teammate, and then the Hulk had growled in his face. Tony’s gasp and hurried “What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me,” made Steve smile, and he finally starts to feel like they’ve really had a victory.

( _After, he apologizes for the things he’d called Tony in the hellicarrier._ )

**Loud**

Steve already knew that Tony was brash, and loud, and sarcastic. Most of the words out of his mouth were witty insults, and after the Avengers move in, Steve quickly realizes this is Tony’s way of being affectionate (except when he uses _that_ tone, and then it just means you’ve crossed a line and he’s definitely pissed off).

They butt-heads like no one else, get under each other’s skin in a way that has them pressed nearly chest to chest, glaring at each other so hard it clears out the room. Steve’s usually the one who stalks away first, and he goes to the gym to release his energy.

It’s when Steve calms down that he realizes Tony was just deflecting, or offended, or had been teasing, and Steve had been in the wrong. He almost always goes down to the workshop and apologizes to Tony afterwards. The older (younger?) man just nods his head in acceptance and starts explaining whatever he happens to be working on this time in a very loud tone.

But it’s more like he’s just talking aloud while Steve listens in, because he usually gets distracted pretty quickly in his explanation by some realization or another, and really, it doesn’t matter because Steve hadn’t understood a word he was saying anyway.

Steve just settles down on a stool somewhere nearby Tony in his workshop and plays angry birds or some other nonsense game on his new Starkphone, a secretly pleased smile on his face.

( _Tony always notices this smile, and it freaks him out so much that sometimes he gets even more unnecessarily loud._ )

**Music**

It’s after there next particularly bad mission where Iron Man takes a particularly bad beating by some tentacle monster with a grip almost too much for the armor that Steve discovers Tony’s taste in music.

After de-briefing, Steve goes down to the workshop to make sure Tony is okay and finds him working on the armor with his arm in a sling and his music turned up so loud Steve almost can’t hear himself think.

Tony doesn’t even look up when Steve taps him on the shoulder, but he does make a complicated motion with his hand and the volume of the music goes down.  Steve is grateful for this and nudges Tony in the shoulder carefully.

“You should be resting,” he tells him, and Tony just shrugs.

“I’ve got more important things to do.”

“More important than your health?” Steve asks, and he can hear himself starting to get frustrated, so he clears his throat.

“What are you listening to, anyway?” he asks before Tony can get defensive, and that gets him Tony’s attention, if only for a moment.

Tony stares at him with an incredulous look on his face. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, and then he shakes his head.

“It is the bane of my existence that you don’t know who Black Sabbath is. I’ll make sure they get on your IPod in time for your morning “jog”. And by the way, why are you still using that crappy IPod when I dropped off a StarkPod for you?” he says, and then he’s focused back on his work again.

“It was a gift,” Steve mumbles to himself because he knows Tony’s not listening.

He hovers around for a bit more, wanting to talk, to try and convince Tony to go upstairs and rest, but he knows it’s not going to work. Tony will only get frustrated, and then Steve will get frustrated, and before he knows it, they’ll be fighting again.

“Well, if you aren’t going to take care of yourself…” he mutters, and sits down.

( _By tomorrow morning, the band Black Sabbath is indeed on his IPod, along with some band called ACDC._ )

**Mornings**

Steve knows Tony is not a morning person. In fact, this is one of the reasons he and Tony butt heads all the time. Steve most definitely _is_ a morning person, and Tony’s not awake until somewhere around his fourth cup of coffee.

It takes a few months for Steve to finally stop pushing Tony’s buttons in the morning. He’s just so used to being up at dawn that it’s awkward for him to come home from his morning jog, vibrating with energy, and not try and talk to his teammates while he makes breakfast.

Thor is just as cheery as he is, when he’s home, and it’s not really a problem with Natasha, who seems to jump out of bed wide awake. On the morning’s Steve runs into Clint, the man doesn’t seem to mind Steve’s constant cheery banter, though he’s not really awake through most of their conversations. In fact, sometimes Steve thinks he’s still asleep wherever he’s perched eating breakfast that morning.

Bruce is usually nice enough, though for the first few months he’d dart in for his morning coffee and dart right back out. Now-a-days, he sits and smiles and nods along to whatever conversation Steve is managing to keep going with whoever else is in the kitchen that day. If no one else is, Bruce is happy enough to respond in kind to Steve’s chattering.

It’s really only Tony who has a problem with Steve talking to him, but Tony has a problem with anyone talking to him before he's had his coffee. Steve takes it to heart at first, convinced Tony’s ignoring him, and that’s why he spends any morning he runs into Tony picking a fight.

It takes three months for Steve to figure out Tony’s not ignoring him, but when he does, he uses the same tactic he uses with Clint in the morning, making sure Tony is perfectly aware he’s not expecting any response.

( _And isn’t it interesting how prickly Steve is around Tony that he was unconcerned with Clint’s lack of responses, but was offended by Tony’s?_ )

**Chocolate**

The first time they kiss, Tony’s eating these chocolate covered cherries someone sent them in the mail. Everyone else refused to eat them, just in case they were poisoned, but Tony insisted he’d had JARVIS check and was perfectly happy to eat them all alone.

They’re sitting on the couch together, watching some stupid show Steve’s said a million time’s he hates. He thinks it’s called army wives. He’d thought it’d be a great show, but now it just disappoints him.

Steve knows Tony’s watching it just to get a reaction out of him, but Steve’s undeterred. It’s a game they’ve been playing recently, to see how far they can push each other.

“Mmm,” Tony moans as he pops the last chocolate covered cherry in his mouth. “You missed out, those were _amazing_ ,” he says.

“Yeah, sure,” Steve says, a smile curving his lips. “There’s chocolate on your cheek.”

“What, really? Where?” Tony asks, wiping at his face with the heel of his palm.

“No, it’s right…here,” Steve says as he leans forward, using his finger to wipe away the smudge. He catches Tony’s eye, and his smile falters. Tony’s gaze is strange, but familiar in a way that make’s Steve wary.

When Tony leans forward and presses his lips against Steve’s, he realizes why. It was the same look Lorraine gave him just before she kissed him all those years ago.

He bolts from the room without thinking.

( _He doesn’t see it, but for a split second, the look on Tony’s face is devastated._ )

**Void**

They avoid each other, go out of their way to not be in the same room together. When they go on missions, they’re professional, Cap and Iron Man, but the minute the missions over, Tony refuses to even look at him, let alone speak to him.

There’s a void in Steve’s life like he hasn’t felt since the first few months after he woke up, when SHIELD was keeping him locked away from the rest of the world, running tests.

Steve still has the rest of the team now, and he’s not alone, but there’s still a void none-the-less. Tony’s gone.

( _And Steve doesn’t want to admit it, but the kiss hadn’t felt wrong, or bad, and it hadn’t disgusted him at all. It had been soft, and warm, and had just left Steve confused._ )

**Cold**

His life is cold without Tony in it, Steve realizes after some time. He had just been starting to feel warm again, in this cold new world, and then Tony had left and taken all of his warmth with him.

Steve knows he has no one to blame but himself, but he’s _confused_. It’s not that he’s never felt any pull of attraction to another man before, it’s not that he’s never felt that pull of attraction for _Tony_ before. It’s just that for so long, Steve had tramped down on those feelings of attraction. That Steve automatically _still_ tramped down on those feelings, didn’t acknowledge them, because at one time they had been considered wrong, had been illegal.

Now that he’s free to feel whatever way he wants to feel, Steve is even more confused.

( _And somehow, it doesn’t matter that he’s more than just attracted to Tony. It doesn’t matter that he thinks of him with affection, or that he enjoys the time they spend together, or that he delights in the games they play, because he’s just so_ confused _._ )

**Anger**

Steve keeps sending Tony these fleeting little looks, and he knows he’s doing it but he’s not sure how to stop. That’s when Tony starts getting angry. He starts shooting Steve angry glares back, but there’s confusion and hurt in those looks too.

Steve understands that he’s asking him questions without really asking him questions.

_Why did you run away?_

_Stop looking at me like that!_

_It’s your fault we’re not talking._

_I can’t just be your friend, Steve._

It’s all there, in those fleeting little looks, and that’s when Steve starts realizing that he can’t stand those looks. More than that, he can’t stand the fact that he put them there.

More than that, he can’t stand not being around Tony anymore.

( _Steve doesn’t know it, but Tony can’t stand not being around Steve anymore either._ )

**Art**

Steve tries to talk to Tony, but every time they’re in a room alone together, Tony finds an excuse to get out of there before Steve can say anything. Whenever Steve manages to corner him, Tony finds a way out of said corned. It frustrates Steve, but he knows it’s his fault.

He starts going up to the rooftop again with his sketchbook. He draws without thinking until Tony’s chiseled jawline appears on the page, then his eyes, and his lips, and Steve realizes he’s _gone_.

He flips back a few pages, and sure enough, there’s more pictures of Tony. Pictures he hadn’t realized he’d been drawing.

He’d been drawing all of the avengers, at some point, way back in the beginning of the book, and Steve realizes that that was how he’d been explaining away all the sketches of Tony. Except Steve had been drawing only Tony for months now.

That’s when he get’s an idea.

“JARVIS, is Tony in the workshop?”

“Yes, Captain Rogers.”

“Do you think you could help me with something?”

( _And Tony isn’t surprised to find out JARVIS was totally in on it, the traitor._ )

**Life**

At about 3 AM that morning, there’s banging on his door, and Steve’s out of bed with a smile before he’s even fully awake.

He’s at the door so quickly, Tony’s expression is one of surprise instead of anger when he opens it.

Steve just keeps smiling.

“What the hell is this!?” Tony spits, throwing sheets of paper at Steve’s chest ineffectually.

“My sketches,” he responds.

“I know that! I meant, what the hell were they doing pinned all over my apartment!? How did you even get in there? I specifically told JARVIS he wasn’t allowed to let you in!”

“I know. But you didn’t say anything about Natasha.”

Tony doesn’t say anything, but he does glare at the ceiling. Steve can almost feel JARVIS smirking.

When he finally does turn back to Steve, his glare is still in full force.

“You’re the one who ran away, Steve,” he manages to say, and Steve just shrugs.

“I know.”

“You can’t just – can’t just turn around and change your mind. That’s not fucking fair,” Tony grumbles, but his face is finally wavering from angry to hopeful.

“I know.”

They’re silent for a moment, Steve still smiling, and Tony looking like he’s ready to flee any second. Then Steve leans down and starts collecting the sketches Tony had thrown at him. He realizes there’s only a few, and his smile widens, because Tony had picked the least offensive one’s to throw at him – pictures of just his nose and his lips, or his eyes, and even one that focused on the arc reactor.

“I guess, if you don’t want these…” Steve starts.

“No! They're mine,” Tony snarls, reaching forward and grabbing them from Steve’s hands. He refuses to meet Steve’s eyes. “I mean, they are of me. I think that mean’s they legally belong to me. You can’t just use my likeness without my permission Steve. I could sue you for this,” he rambles, and Steve just laughs

That shuts him up.

“Tony, just get over here and kiss me already,” he says, and Tony does just that, dropping the sketches bundled in his arms at their feet as he grabs Steve’s face in his hands and kisses him.

( _Tony’s kisses breathe life right back into him, and Steve will never regret this decision._ )

**_Epilogue_**

“So which one was your favorite?” Steve asks, teasing.

“Favorite what?” Tony asks, distracted, as he works on schematics in the bed next to Steve.

“Favorite drawing,” he says, smirking.

Tony’s movements stop for a second, and he almost look’s like he’s going to start blushing, but then he starts shuffling things around frantically and shrugs his shoulder’s non committedly.

“That one of me in the common room, I guess,” he says, and Steve knows exactly which one he’s referring to, even though there are at least a dozen of Tony in there.

After Steve had spoken with Jarvis, he’d spent a few hours picking out and adding color to one of his favorite pieces of Tony.

In fact, Tony had it hanging above his work station down in the lab.

It was a perfect rendition of Tony asleep on the couch, one leg tossed over the back and his head almost falling off the side. He might have even been drooling, but Steve had been kind enough to leave that little detail out. It was the perfect serenity on Tony’s face that had prompted Steve to draw him. All around him were the other Avengers, watching some movie or another, and in the center was Tony, fast asleep.

Comfortable, and safe.

( _And maybe it was just coincidence that, at the time, Steve had been sitting next to him and Tony’s feet had been in his lap, but though he’d left that little detail out of his sketch, he’d never forget it in his mind._ )


End file.
